Ced0540: Week Two Reflection

This week's material took a slight diversion from the mathematical end of statistics to software that makes it easier for individuals and companies to create surveys and compile data. At St. Ann's we have created a few surveys, for a variety of reasons. We have surveyed families to analyze their use of our website and how we might make it better. Ironically, we accomplished this through Surveymonkey with only a fraction of our families responding. We have also questioned families' interest in creating a dresscode and uniform policy. Currently, there are also several families interested in getting St. Ann's to consider extending their curriculum through 8th grade. One parent has asked about creating a survey for this as well. In each case, however, there hasn't been a huge need for a complicated software program with all the bells and whistles. The types of surveys we conduct I think are pretty straight forward and wouldn't require real in-depth analysis. This is why, although I found it interesting to examine all the different statistical software available, I didn't see a huge application to my professional life. For me, Surveymonkey is about as in-depth as I want to get with any kind of software and is the application I will teach my 5th and 6th graders when we talk about data collecting. I would like to see my students practice gathering and interpretting data themselves. As mentioned elsewhere, on their standardized tests taken this fall, data analysis was one of the weaker areas. I think Surveymonkey could help with this. I also really need to explore Inspirdata further as well. I vaguely remember examining this software when our school first purchased it four years ago, and now I'm sure that not only does it create surveys, but it also has some interesting ways of displaying the results - visuals that are designed for grades 7-12.

Overall, I think the work we did this week emphasizes, again, that with a little investigation, many easy to use and excellent web-based applications are available for free, and that although they may not contain all the glitz and glam of paid software, most of what schools need can be accomplished through the freebies.

Ced0540: Stats - Week One

This first week watching and rewatching and reading and re-reading notes on statistics reminds me of my days of taking econ in college. I was fine the first lecture or two when all we talked about was supply and demand but then was completely lost after that. Same with stats. I have been following along and thought I had everything covered until we got to the part on deviations and variances. Now I'm confused. I have to admit, however, that unlike econ, I'm at least curious about how stats work. I actually enjoyed the Youtube video on stats and found it really helped cover the basics for me. And watching the video brought to mind the things I do at school to use statistics that I hadn't thought about before, mainly in the library. Every month I'm supposed to run reports, documenting the books that have been checked out during that time. Quite honestly, I have never run the reports because I really didn't see the point. What do I care if "Lightning Thief" was checked out once or ten times in November? Except now I see the point. Part of my job is to order more books, as well as weed out those that aren't as popular. If I ran the reports, I could see what books are most popular and then base my decision on new purchases accordingly. For example, if it turns out that "Lightning Thief" if a popular check out, I could justify ordering similar novels. Likewise, if it turns out that our 100+ collection of "Goosebumps" books are no longer popular, I would have a reason to clear the shelf of them and stock different books. Like the video pointed out, it's the statistics that give credence to the claim. I could certainly claim that I never observe certain books being checked out, but that doesn't necessarily come across as objective, and how does anyone know if my observations are accurate or supported. What I now need to figure out is how variance and deviation fit into all of this.